Police Investigate Separate Weekend Shootings

Two weekend shootings by law enforcement officers were being investigated Sunday. In one, an off-duty sheriff’s deputy wounded a man who tried to rob him as he was leaving for work, authorities said.

Hawthorne police said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Damaso Bautista, 21, was dressed in civilian clothes at 4:30 a.m. Sunday when he was accosted by a man with a pistol who demanded money.

Bautista, a deputy for six months, ran for cover and fired two shots. Within minutes, an 18-year-old man sought treatment for a gunshot wound at a nearby hospital. Hawthorne police arrested two men at the emergency room--the wounded suspect, Ernesto Mijares, and his 20-year-old companion, Louis Napoles. They also were booked in connection with robberies Sunday at three all-night convenience stores in Hawthorne, said Detective Victor Valdez.

Mijares was in stable condition at County-USC Medical Center jail ward.

Los Angeles police were investigating the shooting of a garment factory worker Saturday evening by three officers. The officers fired 12 shots and critically wounded the man after he allegedly pointed a shotgun at them, police said.

Police were called to an apartment-hotel on South Main Street at 6 p.m. Saturday after a man was reported brandishing a gun outside. Officers found the man in the fourth-floor hallway. In English and Spanish, they ordered him to drop his shotgun, said Detective Mike Schwehr. When he did not obey, the three officers shot him, Schwehr said.

The man was in stable condition Sunday at County-USC Medical Center with multiple gunshot wounds.

A woman at the scene who said she is the suspect’s sister-in-law identified him as Carmelo Sagal of Guerrero, Mexico, who had lived with her and her husband for two years.